Bilingualism in Arabic and Kanuri Among Islamic Scholars in Borno State: A Linguistic Profile

Borno State's Islamic scholarly tradition has historically produced bilingual and multilingual scholars fluent in both Arabic and indigenous languages, particularly Kanuri, creating distinctive patterns of linguistic repertoire management that remain under-documented in Nigerian applied linguistics. This study profiles the Arabic-Kanuri bilingualism of Islamic scholars in Borno State, examining the domains of language use, proficiency levels, and attitudes associated with each language in scholarly and community contexts. Using a descriptive sociolinguistic methodology, the research administers a bilingual language use questionnaire and conducts proficiency assessments in both Arabic and Kanuri with 60 Islamic scholars drawn from Maiduguri, Kukawa, and Monguno. Ethnographic observation of teaching sessions, public lectures, and informal scholarly gatherings supplements the structured data collection. The study finds that virtually all scholars maintain active functional bilingualism, using Arabic predominantly in textual scholarship, formal teaching, and Islamic ritual contexts, while Kanuri dominates community interaction, pastoral counselling, and informal discourse. Arabic proficiency is found to be consistently higher in receptive than productive modes. The study contributes to the sociolinguistics of Islamic bilingualism in sub-Saharan Africa and provides a baseline for future longitudinal research on language shift among Borno's scholarly community. Keywords: Bilingualism, Arabic, Kanuri, Islamic scholars, Borno State.